Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2012 20:36:04 GMT 1
I have acquired a fertilized Lasius niger queen. She came to me in a small plastic tube and immediately transferred her to a prepared 15x100 glass tube and placed it in a dark place that has sustained temperature of about 75-77 degrees Fahrenheit. Should I feed her at all? Or will her reserves be sufficient to sustain her? I was thinking of perhaps a drop of honey water.
I know that L. niger queens are claustral, and she seems fine, but I was wondering if she might need a boost after the stress of shipping, transfer, etc. Oh, and how long before she begins to lay eggs, typically? Thanks much for any insight.
|
|
|
Post by Myrm on Aug 31, 2012 20:46:07 GMT 1
There is no requirement to feed her. Once she settles down and feels safe she will lay eggs anywhere from a day or two to a week or so. Hope this helps.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2012 20:54:40 GMT 1
Are you in America, Or Eroupe? She should lay eggs any day, within two weeks. And when she has her first workers, you could give them honey or some sort of protien.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2012 21:35:12 GMT 1
There is no requirement to feed her. Once she settles down and feels safe she will lay eggs anywhere from a day or two to a week or so. Hope this helps. Yes, it helps very much! Thank you! I also wanted to say thank you for providing this site. It's very nice, friendly and informative. I'm learning quite a lot going through old posts.
|
|
|
Post by Myrm on Aug 31, 2012 21:37:49 GMT 1
Thank you. Your kind words are appreciated and encouraging, especially for our younger members who always try their best to help everybody. it's nice to see people taking time to acknowledge it.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2012 21:46:30 GMT 1
Are you in America, Or Eroupe? She should lay eggs any day, within two weeks. And when she has her first workers, you could give them honey or some sort of protien. Thanks very much for the info, Poortea. And I am in America. I started to convert to C, as I was thinking most on this site are in Europe (although I don't know that for certain). But then I thought, "I'm always doing the converting. Let *them* convert for a change!" lol! I'm just teasing, but it does seem that all of the quality ant enthusiast forums have a lot of European users. I guess that the hobby is more prevalent there? Plus you folks have good access to queens that we don't have here in the states. I'm aware that L. niger isn't native, but we do have neoniger. I'm currently hoping for mating flights of Tapinoma sessile and a Crematogaster species that have been seeing around my house.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2012 22:03:31 GMT 1
I have heard that ant keeping is huge in Germany, but they also seem to have a few Illegal species. Importing/exporting of none native species is illegal in the US. You cant cross state lines with ants. You could only move ants within your state. What shop did you buy them from?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2012 23:02:31 GMT 1
I have heard that ant keeping is huge in Germany, but they also seem to have a few Illegal species. Importing/exporting of none native species is illegal in the US. You cant cross state lines with ants. You could only move ants within your state. What shop did you buy them from? I only have the one queen so far. the others I am hoping to collect myself from my yard. The L. niger queen was a gift from someone. She didn't cross state lines, but I'm not sure where he acquired her to tell you the truth. Be sure that I will be taking very strict precautions with keeping the Lasius captive. She may actually be L. neoniger but I'm not experienced enough to tell and don't want to stress her with examination at this point anyway. Perhaps later I'll get a magnifier and access a key. By the way, I was reading about differences between Niger and Neoniger. It was my understanding that Niger was not wild in the U.S., but some believe that there are actually Niger populations in a few places here. And, evidently, there's a bit of taxonomical confusion that needs some work on this species. Do you know anything about that?
|
|
|
Post by Myrm on Sept 1, 2012 8:36:09 GMT 1
Hi I too have read that though not native to the US there have been a few reports of sporadic L niger discoveries. As you correctly state Lasius neoniger is the nearest the US natively has to Lasius niger, though there is also Lasius americanus which is vary similar too. I found this which may be of interest, though quite old.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2012 22:11:45 GMT 1
Hi I too have read that though not native to the US there have been a few reports of sporadic L niger discoveries. As you correctly state Lasius neoniger is the nearest the US natively has to Lasius niger, though there is also Lasius americanus which is vary similar too. I found this which may be of interest, though quite old. Thank you very much for that link.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2012 13:59:17 GMT 1
The queen is probably not Lasius niger. Don't scare me like that! ;D
Some people are receiving Lasius niger queens in the United States, from Europe, and it is really 100% not OK.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2012 21:08:49 GMT 1
The queen is probably not Lasius niger. Don't scare me like that! ;D Some people are receiving Lasius niger queens in the United States, from Europe, and it is really 100% not OK. I quite understand your concern. She was given to me a L. niger but, absent sufficient magnification and a key, I can't vouch for niger or neoniger. I *can* tell you that she did not come to me from Europe. All things considered, L. niger should be the least of our worries considering some of the things I've seen people trying to acquire (obviously through illegal means). Bad, bad news.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2012 22:43:26 GMT 1
Up in New England, we're lucky not to have Solenopsis invicta, Linepithema humile, Nylanderia pubens, Pachycondyla chinensis, Brachymyrmex patagonicus, etc. We already have Myrmica rubra here, as an invasive species, we don't need an established population of Lasius niger. A nonnative species is never a good thing. What have you been seeing people try to acquire and where?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 6, 2012 6:39:11 GMT 1
Up in New England, we're lucky not to have Solenopsis invicta, Linepithema humile, Nylanderia pubens, Pachycondyla chinensis, Brachymyrmex patagonicus, etc. We already have Myrmica rubra here, as an invasive species, we don't need an established population of Lasius niger. A nonnative species is never a good thing. What have you been seeing people try to acquire and where? I often see people in the US inquiring about acquiring queens of various European species. Or wanting S. invicta to keep in areas that have not been invaded. The worst was a guy in the US asking for Myrmecia.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2012 5:18:34 GMT 1
Oooooh, you wouldn't want myrmecia loose in your area- those guys play hardball.
Someone trying to acquire and keep myrmecia would hopefully be to problematic to the owner because they are so huge, require massive food upkeep and can be a nuisance therefore can only really live in bushland areas (not suburban areas like I hear fire ants do a lot in US). Which leads me to think they'd be very difficult to keep in captivity. Hopefully if he got it, it failed to survive in a small enclosure.
EDIT:
We talked about feeding a Queen, but what about water? Should we supply water for her or should she survive?
|
|